The Lost Language of Plants and the Heart as an Organ of Perception

Stephen Buhner is an earth poet, deep ecologist, and herbalist, as well as author of nine books, including The Lost Language of Plants and The Secret Teachings of Plants. We talked about some of the differences between earth-based worldviews and the scientific, mechanistic worldview, as well as the non-linearity of nature and some of the energetics of life. We also got into talking about the current ecological catastrophe that seems to be everywhere, and how exactly we can go about being alive and response-able in such a painful time.

At the core of what Stephen is getting at is the wildness of the world, our evolutionarily-designed ability to interact with, to learn from, and to communicate with the living world around us. It is this which is stolen from us through our schooling and our indoor-based society, and it is the pursuit of this nature-connected way of life which has the potential to heal so many of the ills civilization inflicts upon us.

One of my favourite things Stephen talks about is how the heart is an organ of perception and communication, rather than merely a pump. In fact, it’s not even really a pump, given that it has nowhere near the strength to be the sole mover of blood throughout our circulatory system. Our heart truly is the seat of the soul, if you will, it is the means by which we can learn from the wisdom of the wild world, and it is a re-orientation to a heart-based way of living that does so well to break down so much of our civilized, anthropocentric way of being.